From the many email inquiries that we receive at SA-Austin.com, one thing is clear… emigration is a topic that comes up in many South African households.

This is not a new trend. South Africans have been moving to other countries in droves for at least a couple of decades. Politicsweb published an article that put the number of South African emigrants at more than 588,000 in 2010.

People have many reasons for wanting to leave South Africa, and it is typically thought that such a step will remove those issues from their lives. Depending on which country they go to, for the most part, that is true.

However, nobody should be under the illusion that emigration is easy. It is of course not impossibly difficult, but it is not necessarily a walk in the park.

Here are some of the issues that will come up…

Emigration… Which Country?

The first emigration question to consider is which country to emigrate to. You must have some sort of idea about whether you think you can live there happily. For example, if you simply can’t function in cold weather, Canada would not be a good choice for you. Do some homework on what life is like in the countries you are considering.

Visas

Some people think that you can simply show up at your new country with a tourist visa and move in. Not true! You need a specific visa that allows you to live and work in your new country.

Sometimes these can be very difficult to obtain. The USA is notoriously difficult to get into. If you win a Green Card in the Green Card Lottery, you’re set. If not, you will have to a find a job with an employer that is willing to sponsor a work visa (H1B). If you have an established business in South Africa and you want to open a branch in the US, you can transfer yourself to the branch on a L1 visa.

However you do it, the visa is critically important and can be a deal-breaker. Despite your preferences, you may be forced to pick a country where you can get the right visa.

Wrapping Up Your Affairs

Assuming that you have the correct visa for the country of your choice, the next step will be to wrap up your affairs in South Africa.

This may include selling your house and/or possessions. Some people ship their possessions to their new country, but this may not be practical if you don’t have many valuable possessions or your new country has a different electrical system.

You will have to wrap up your income tax affairs with SARS. This will include closing your old bank accounts and obtaining a new “blocked” bank account, as well as obtaining a tax clearance certificate from SARS (a certificate that states that all income taxes have been paid).

Your Family

Here comes the potentially sensitive part… your family and how they feel about your decision to leave.

Some families understand and support the new emigrants-to-be, but others don’t. They might not share your sentiments about your reasons for wanting to emigrate.

You will have to break the news gently, especially to parents for whom it can be a devastating thing to see their children go off.

Departure

Brace yourself for some strong emotions on the day of your departure.

You will be anxious because you’re heading into the unknown. You will also be sad because you’ll be saying goodbye to your family, not quite knowing when you’ll see them again. Your family, and especially your parents, will be anxious and sad for the same reasons.

After 20 years in the US, and several trips to South Africa to go visit, I can tell you that the goodbyes at the airport are still not easy.

Arrival In The New Country

When arriving in your new country, you will probably still feel a little anxious because of the unknown-thing, but you will probably also feel somewhat excited. There you are, standing at the beginning of something new and exciting, ready to take on the world.

After a few days, that feeling will likely subside and the reality of what you have done, will kick in. That is not necessarily bad, but you might feel somewhat lonely.

This is why it is a good idea to try to connect with other South Africans in the area as soon as you can. They will help to give you back that feeling of belonging that you need. These days it is quite easy to connect with such groups. Many of them have websites (like this one) or Facebook groups.

[Update] As Jurie Korkie suggests in the comments, it is also important to make some friends with locals in your new community. When they hear your accent, many will be fascinated and interested in your story. Look for social events or clubs in your area, or if you are religiously-inclined, join a local church.

The First 2 Years

In my experience, you need to give yourself at least two years to make peace with the fact that you are now living in a new country. You will probably question your move and sometimes feel sad about it. You may even strongly consider packing up and moving back home. Give yourself at least two years to get over these feelings and to adapt to your new home.

If all this sounds negative, it isn’t meant to be negative… it is meant to be realistic. It is meant to help you understand what you will be facing when you emigrate. It is meant to strengthen your mind to take on the challenges that you will be facing and to become one of the hundreds of thousands of people who have made a success of their emigration.

If you are considering emigration, I wish you all of the best   

Do you have an opinion on emigration, or an experience to share? Let us know in the comments…

Some might say, “So what? People have migrated for thousands of years and will continue to do so in the future!”

The thing is, South Africa’s emigration rate has been higher than what can be described as “normal migration” and there has been significant concern over the so-called “brain drain” – skilled people leaving.

Given the audience of this website, many of the readers of this blog fall into the category of people who have left South Africa in recent years to build a new life in another country, including the United States.

Ever wondered why? What are expats’ main reasons for leaving South Africa?

To all of you South African expats who have permanently settled elsewhere, I ask this… (Pick up to 2 answers, but if you have only one reason, pick only one.)

Vote in the poll and leave your comments below…

At the time, as this article suggests, South African President Jacob Zuma said that nationalization is not ANC policy, and that the ANC has not shifted its policy on nationalization.

Yet, a mere 4 months later, Jacob Zuma launched a state mining company!

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that exactly what Malema was talking about, and that Zuma said was not ANC policy?

Zuma says that this is all about building a strong, mixed economy and that local communities will benefit from the mining operations in their area. I sure hope this is true because the recent service protests seem to suggest that there may be some doubt over how much the local communities have really benefited from ANC rule.

People like Julius Malema, who have extravagant lifestyles, and there are others (Jacob Zuma’s son being an example), have ensured that they make a lot of money off state operations by having state contracts awarded to companies that they have a big financial stake in… Jacob Zuma’s son already has interests in a South African mining company. No doubt, a lot of money will be made off contracts awarded to them by the state mining company.

With all this being said, the question is…

Vote in the poll and leave your comments below…

The conflict I am talking about is between South African expats and non-expats in the MyNews24 (letters) section of News24. And at times, it gets downright nasty!

In the past, every now and again, some expat would write a letter talking about their new life outside South Africa. They would touch on the positive aspects of their new life, which would also usually be the exact opposite of the reasons they left South Africa.

Then followed the inevitable comments… some sympathetic to the author, but others… oh boy… according to them, the author is a chicken and a no-good traitor who ran away from South Africa and without whom South Africa is so much better off!

Now News24 seems to have opened the floodgates by openly inviting expats to write about their experiences as expats. They did, and so did the anti-expat commentators!

Out of all this, five groups of people seem to have emerged:

1. The expats who have already left South Africa. They feel that South Africa does not currently offer them and their children a viable future due to various reasons. Some left South Africa simply looking for a better future, while others have left with hatred in their hearts due to their personal experiences (perhaps having been victims of crime). Almost all miss some aspects of South Africa though, especially if they have still family living there.
2. Expats-to-be: Those who are still in South Africa, but who are in the process of immigrating. Their views on South Africa are pretty much the same as the expats… or else, why bother immigrating?
3. Expat-wannabes: Those who share the views of the expats and expats-to-be and want to immigrate, but can’t immigrate for some reason, usually a lack of immigration options or money.
4. The Neutrals: They may not be very happy with some aspects of the current South Africa, but they have no immigration plans. They try to be generally positive, or they simply ignore the negative, and hope that things in South Africa will improve. They try to get on with their lives. Expats don’t bother them. They might not agree with the expats, and might say so, but they generally remain courteous.
5. Expat-haters: The words say it all. Nothing an expat says is good or worth considering. Expats are the slime of society. South Africa is better off without them, and their new countries are worse off for their presence, never mind that expats usually take some valuable skills along with them. Included in this group are also those who hate white people, plain and simple, and who love Julius Malema.

It is the last group, the expat-haters, that intrigues me.

If you read a letter written by an expat who was asked to, or decided to write about his or her experiences as an expat, what do you expect he or she will say? Will he write about how good he had in South Africa? Maybe (and fair enough, it can’t all be bad), but there will likely be some negative stuff too. They left the country, afterall!

Why all the hate? Why are they so unwilling to acknowledge that all might not be well and damn anyone who says it? Are they perhaps closet-expat-wannabes?

While soccer is a hugely popular sport around the world, not all South Africans are soccer fans. Some may not care to watch SWC 2010 whether it is held in South Africa or not. Others may be very excited about it and can’t wait for it to start.

South Africa has many good points, but it is also known to have very high crime rates. That was one of the reasons for very lackluster ticket sales in Europe. A lot has been said about the crime, and the South African government has gone to some lengths to assure people that they will be safe during SWC 2010.

So, now my questions to you are…

About Soccer…

About The Crime…

These polls will remain open until July 11, 2010.

I want to wish South Africa the best with the hosting of Soccer World Cup 2010. I hope some very good things come from it!

This seems to have set off a firestorm in South Africa, especially amongst AWB members and supporters, who regard this murder as “a declaration of war by black people on white people.”

The timing for this murder could not have been worse! A few weeks ago, Julius Malema, the controversial leader of the ruling ANC’s Youth League, was singing a song called “kill the boer” (“kill the farmer”) at a rally where he was a speaker. This rightfully upset a lot of people, and last week a South African court banned the singing of the song, declaring it hate-speech.

The question now is: Is this a declaration of war on whites in South Africa? Is this murder the beginning of wide-spread racial violence?

I don’t think it is, and here’s why…

Motive for the Murder

Eugene Terre’Blanche (ET) was a right-winger who didn’t have much time for black people. He started the AWB in 1973 in response to what he considered to be the liberal race policies of former South African Prime Minister, John Vorster.

Anybody who followed ET’s activities over the years will know that he was not afraid of violence. He threatened with violence if a black government ever took over South Africa, and the AWB supposedly had a hand in a bombing campaign orchestrated before the first all-race elections of 1994 in an attempt to destabilize the country and derail the elections. More recently, he spent three years (2001 – 2004) in jail for beating a black man to the point of brain damage.

Given all this, I doubt that he treated black workers on his farm with much respect. As I suspected, and as now reported in the press, the two black guys who killed him had done some work for him on his farm and he refused to pay them. Who knows why he would not pay them… maybe they did a bad job… maybe he believed that he didn’t need to pay them.

The point is, it was a dispute over pay that led to the murder, which makes it a criminal murder and not a political murder!

This does not mean that the murder is justified in any way.

Malema

Back to Julius Malema… The AWB has accused Malema of being responsible for this murder. This is one point that I partially agree with. I don’t think Malema is directly responsible, but…

Whether I like it or not (and I don’t like it), Julius Malema is a leader in South Africa who has a large following whom he has a lot of influence over. If he goes around singing “kill the boer” songs, he is planting the seed in his followers’ heads that it is OK to kill white people. While thousands of white farmers have been murdered in South Africa since 1994 and before Malema came on the scene, he is further fomenting the current situation and should therefore carry at least a partial moral responsibility.

War?

The AWB considers this murder to be a declaration of war, or so they stated in the press. They obviously feel this is a political murder. It is very convenient for them to consider it a political murder because that strengthens their political beliefs. I think they are wrong!

This was a criminal murder over a pay dispute. If it becomes a war, it will be because the AWB makes it a war. Luckily they have stated that they do not intend any violent retribution. I hope all their members abide by that.

Farm Murders

Eugene Terre’Blanche was a well-known man, hence all the attention his murder is getting in the press. As I stated earlier, thousands of white farmers have been murdered on their farms, mostly by black people, since 1994. ET’s murder counts as a farm murder.

So far the South African government has been largely indifferent to the farm murders. Terrible as ET’s murder is, if anything good could come from it, I hope it is that his murder shines a very bright light on farm murders and that something finally gets done about it.

My condolences to the Terre’Blanche family.

I was ready to take on the day and have a good one… until I saw a news report on Fin24.com…

It is a report on the appointment of a new CEO by SAA (South African Airways).  The report talks about how the former CEO, Khaya Ngqula, was fired by the SAA Board after allegations of corruption emerged. Chris Smyth was then appointed acting-CEO until a suitable replacement could be found. Now came the announcement that Siza Mzimela has been appointed as SAA’s new CEO.

Now one could quite legitimately ask, what’s the big deal? One person got fired. Another person was appointed as a temporary replacement, and then a third person was appointed person as a permanent replacement.

The thing that struck me though was that the person who was fired was a black person, the temporary replacement was a white person, and the permanent replacement was a black person. I was wondering why the white person wasn’t good enough to be permanently appointed. Afterall, he was good enough to be temporarily appointed.

Then I remembered… this is BEE (black economic empowerment) South Africa we’re talking about. Black people are supposed to get the top jobs. That’s what black economic empowerment is all about.

Yes, apartheid and its racist policies are long gone. It has been replaced by a new set of racially-based policies. These new policies are of course not racist in nature. No, they are merely supposed to “address the injustices of the past”. This is apparently not reverse-racism at all.

(If you think I am kidding about people being excluded from certain positions only because of their race, a friend of mine recently told me about how he can’t get fulltime employment at a big TV company in South Africa because they have a specific policy that prohibits hiring white males! That’s a double-whammy… racism and sexism!)

Now I’m wondering: When will the day come where all South Africans, regardless of race or sex, will have an equal shot at jobs and other opportunities? There were the apartheid-years where white people were favored. Now South Africa is in its 16th year where black people are favored. Will there ever be a time where race is not a primary issue?

Maybe I shouldn’t worry about this. At least I live in the US and my kids won’t be subjected to this stuff!

Zuma is a polygamist. In January 2010 he married his 5th wife, and no, the first four wives are not deceased (except for wife #1), and neither is he divorced from them. He is apparently also already engaged to what will be wife #6.

Zuma has fathered 20 children so far, if news reports can be believed. Some of them have been with his wives, but certainly not all of them. For example, the latest one, #20, was born to the unmarried daughter of a friend of Zuma’s in October 2009.

His sexual exploits have landed him in hot water on at least one occasion. A few years ago he was charged with rape after non-consensual sex with a HIV-positive woman. In this incident he famously claimed that the shower he took after the deed safe-guarded him against contracting the virus! He was eventually acquitted, but the sex still took place.

Now the question is…

Vote in the poll and leave your comments below…

So let me tell you…

He’s the fellow on the right. He is also the controversial leader of the ANC Youth League, with a love for radical statements and threatening anyone he does not agree with.

“Who cares?”, you might be thinking. Well, perhaps more people should be worrying about this guy!

As ANCYL leader, and with the ANC being the party that will be governing South Africa for the foreseeable future, it is not unreasonable to see Comrade Julius as representing the next generation of leaders being groomed by the ANC in the wings of South African politics.

As such, it is entirely possible that Julius Malema could be president of South Africa down the road!

Why Is That Bad?

To get a sense of why it might be bad if Julius Malema becomes South Africa’s president, you have to look at some of the things he has been saying and doing…

Malema Quotes

“I have defeated you and your apartheid regime and I’m going to defeat you again, once and for all!”

“I have defeated colonisers. I am going to defeat the children of colonisers.“

Clearly Malema was referring to whites in this case. With a phrase like “I am going to…” he clearly believes that he has unfinished business with whites in South Africa.

When the current SA president, Jacob Zuma, was on trial for fraud and corruption charges a few months before his election as president, Malema said…

“Let us make it clear now: we are prepared to die for Zuma. Not only that, we are prepared to take up arms and kill for Zuma.”

“Why do you want to subject him to the hands of the few, the judiciary, the judges and the media?“

This doesn’t sound like the words of a man who respects the law and believes everyone is equal before the law.

Malema & South African Businesses

A few months ago, Nando’s, a chicken fast-food chain in South Africa that is known for producing funny ads, ran an ad on South African TV featuring a Malema-puppet. This prompted Malema to threaten Nando’s with a mass-action campaign.

A few months later, Nedbank, a sponsor of Athletics South Africa, decided to withdraw further sponsorship of ASA because their sponsorship requirements weren’t being met. This prompted Malema to threaten Nedbank that he would “mobilise society” against Nedbank and he spoke  “of people who are refusing to accept the transformation, of African leadership“, thereby turning the issue into racial one.

Malema & Racism

Speaking of racism, Malema likes to make racially-charged statements. A while ago he called Helen Zille, the (white) Democratic Alliance leader, a “racist, colonialist and imperialist” and a “little racist girl“. This, despite Helen Zille being part of the anti-apartheid movement.

This guy has made many other wild, controversial statements. Do a Google search for “Julius Malema” and you will see them. There seems to be an endless supply of his craziness.

Much of what Malema has to say sounds so much like the kind of stuff uttered by Robert Mugabe, who took 30 years to run Zimbabwe into the ground.

If Malema was just some lunatic on the fringe of politics, there would not be any real need to pay attention to his antics, but he is not on the fringe. Even if he is only in the ANC Youth League, he is a member of South Africa’s governing party, a party that rarely attempts to rein him in.

God help South Africa if Julius Malema ever becomes president!